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The Crash: Chapter Fifteen

As Jason Jackson-Jones' daughter lies in the operating theatre after a car accident, possibly caused by his own firm's faulty parts, he's finally forced to admit how wrong things are going. But has his honesty come too late to save his marriage?Jason stood watching as Terri’s
hand, in apparent slow motion, came up towards his face. It seemed
he would have had all the time in the world to move and block her,
but starting a physical fight with his wife in the emergency room
would be embarrassing, to say the least, and besides, he dimly felt
at some level that the blow was deserved. Maybe if he stood there
and took it, the blow might diffuse some of the anger and guilt that
had been bubbling in him below the surface of his mind ever since
this sorry business with the steel quality started.

The slap stung more than he’d
expected, and he reflexively brought his hand to his cheek and
pressed it there as he watched Terri lower her hand and stare at him.
She couldn’t have looked more stunned if the man she’d married
had suddenly removed his humanoid mask and proved to be a
three-headed green alien from the planet Zarg.

Meanwhile, as the sting faded,
Jason’s focus widened again until it included Bethany’s parents,
who were watching him and Terri as if a scene from EastEnders was
playing out live in front of them, which was after all how it
probably looked. Jason wondered idly if anyone in the room knew who
he was, and if anyone had connections with the media. When you were
in the public eye even a little, as he was, being a well-known
businessman and chairman of a trade association, you became very used
to watching how your life looked to others and how it might be
presented in the news. Right now, his wasn’t looking good. ‘Local
businessman in hospital spat with wife’ wasn’t the headline he
wanted to see in all the papers the next morning. Not that it should
be the first of his worries. There was still Jess to think about.
And the prospect that he might need to issue a recall on the faulty
parts. Not to mention what Peter and the Gazette were going to say
about this latest incident.

Right now, Jason’s life wasn’t
looking good at all.

Bethany’s Dad was the first to
break the silence.

“I’m sure that wasn’t called
for,” he said in a soothing tone.

“I’m sure it was,” Terri said,
her voice so tight that if it had been a spring it would have snapped
and the two parts gone flying to opposite corners of the tiny, packed
waiting room.

As the room came back into focus,
Jason realised that Bethany’s parents weren’t the only people
watching.

“Let’s talk outside,” he said,
and took Terri’s arm. She lagged behind as he led her out into the
corridor.

“Jesus. I’d leave you now, but
I’m not going anywhere as long as my daughter’s lying in there.
I can’t believe you knew she was at risk, and you said nothing.”

“I didn’t know.” The defence
came feebly, because he knew there was some truth to Terri’s
accusation. He hadn’t known, but he’d suspected, and she knew
it.

“But you were worried. And you
didn’t tell us why. You didn’t trust us, and you put my daughter
at risk.”

“Our daughter.”

“My daughter,” Terri spat back,
sidestepping as an orderly pushed a trolley past. “You don’t
deserve to be called her father. A father cares about his family.
He protects them.”

He remembered a play she’d dragged
him to see once because Jess had a bit part in it as an old lady.
What was it called? Something about a circle. At the end, two women
were fighting over a child, and the judge made them both stand
outside the circle, and told them that whichever woman was able to
pull the child out of the circle would win custody. The woman who’d
given birth to the child pulled and pulled because she wanted the
fortune it was heir to, but the other woman, the one who’d brought
it up, let go immediately. She couldn’t bear to see the child
hurt.

He had an uncomfortable feeling that
he’d chosen the wrong part to play. He’d been pulling and
pulling, trying to keep hold of his business and his position as
successful, providing parent. And in the end he’d pulled so hard,
he was in even greater danger of losing both of them. It was easy to
see, after the event, that he should have been the other one, the one
letting go of everything he’d worked for because the most important
thing was protecting his child.

Only he hadn’t known it was his
child at stake. But there had been other lives at stake; other
parents’ children. How was that any better?

“I didn’t know,” he said again,
trying to push back the guilt that had been rising in him since he
realised what he’d done. “It’s easy to be wise after the
event.”

“Oh, you and your glib sayings.
You can’t save our daughter with platitudes.”

She was ‘our daughter’ again now.
Apparently old habits of language died hard. Jason judged it best
to say nothing about the change for the moment. If he drew Terri’s
attention to the fact that she was softening towards him, she’d
probably take it all back.

“I know,” he said, dropping his
head. “I think I hoped that if I didn’t say anything, then it
wouldn’t be true. I wasn’t sure it wasn’t all my imagination.
Mine and the journalist’s. He is a vindictive so-and-so, you know.
He’s always trying to find ways to make me look bad.”

“No, he’s trying to find ways to
sell papers. Why do you always make everything personal?”

“It’s the same thing. He sells
papers by making me look bad. Why can’t the papers ever print
anything good?”

“They do. You were in the paper
when you became chair of APMA. And when you won that contract with
Jenner’s.”

“And now we’re probably losing
the contract with Jenner’s.” He spoke with weary resignation.
It didn’t seem to matter much any more.

Terri stared.

“You didn’t tell me that,
either.”

“Yes I did,” Jason suddenly
remembered. “The other night at dinner, I told you. My P.A. left,
my Production Manager left, and I was about to lose a major contract.
And you said something really intelligent like, ‘Have a glass of
wine.’ Thanks a bundle.”

“What was I supposed to say?”
Terri asked.

Jason thought about it, but there
didn’t seem to be an answer. Maybe there was nothing she could
have said to make him feel better, but she could at least have taken
an interest. But there was no point in arguing about it now. The
past couldn’t be changed. If it could, he’d find a way to undo
the last forty-eight hours, and then Jess wouldn’t be lying in the
operating theatre undergoing who knew what terrifying ordeal.

As Jason opened his mouth to make the
uncharacteristic admission that he didn’t know, a nurse hurried
past them and pushed the waiting room door open. The petite nurse
called, “Mr and Mrs Heston?” then headed back down the corridor
without waiting to check that they were following.

Jason stood numbly as Bethany’s
parents passed. As Natalie came level with them, Terri caught her
hand and gave her a squeeze. Jason was surprised to find a lump in
his throat. He’d never had the impression that Natalie and Terri
got on very well, but it seemed there were some times when personal
animosity was set aside in favour of motherly solidarity, and this
was one of those times.

As the door swung slowly and noisily
shut behind the nurse and the Hestons, Terri turned back to Jason and
stared at him. Her outright shock and bewilderment had faded a
little and now she looked tired and sad.

"How could you know and not say
anything?" she asked again, even though Jason had already
answered the question the best he knew how.

"I don't know," he said,
his voice echoing the sadness in her eyes. "I wasn't sure. I
hoped it was nothing. I wanted to believe it was nothing, so I did.
And we still don't know whether it was the car. Anything could have
happened. If I'd honestly believed they were at risk, I would have
said something."

Terri said nothing but her dark eyes
spoke for her, and they told him that she didn't believe a word he
was saying.

"She could be dying. She might
never walk again. She might be scarred for life. Not just Jess
either. Bethany too. And you didn't say anything, because it
'might' not have been true. I just don't understand you."

"You talk as if it's all my
doing. It wasn't just me. There are checks. If the car
manufacturers think a part isn't up to standard, they needn't use it.
They put the part in there. The garage sold it. There's a whole
chain of people involved."

"But they aren't Jess's parents.
We are. And what would happen if every single one of them thought
someone else was going to deal with it, make the decisions, keep the
public safe? Then nobody would. And then cars crash and kids die,
or are paralysed, or scarred for life. Our beautiful girl."
Terri's tirade degenerated into a torrent of sobs.

Jason reached out to rest a hand on
her arm, but she shook it off and turned away from him, deliberately
ignoring him as she made her way back into the waiting room, sank
into a chair, and lowered her head into her hands. He wasn’t sure,
but he had the distinct impression she was crying. After a moment,
he sat down beside her and began speaking, trying to comfort himself
as much as her: "Lots of people are in car accidents and recover
perfectly well. It might not be much at all. Maybe a few cuts or
broken ribs. They're very common nowadays because of airbags, but
the airbags mean that most people don't have serious injuries or
brain damage any more."

"Brain damage?" Terri's
head snapped upright and she sniffed angrily. "I can't believe
we're even having this conversation. You could have stopped it. And
you did nothing."

Down went the head again.

Jason could have kicked himself.
He'd been trying to make things better, make it sound as if the
damage wouldn't be too serious, and instead he'd just made it worse
by drawing Terri's attention to a risk she hadn't considered.

He gave up and sat silently, looking
at Terri's fingers tangled in her dark hair, and wondering if things
would ever be the same again.

After what seemed like an eternity,
the door creaked open. The petite nurse was back.

"Mr and Mrs Jackson," she
called, and once again glided out of the door, gesturing for them to
follow.

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